Initially as my first quad I bought a second hand Honda and not knowing a lot about them found later on that it had some mechanical issues that although were not serious at the time could have later made it unreliable in the bush, that's exactly what you don't want, you have to take care buying second hand quads as many have been worked hard or flogged to death racing about the bush, and are often sold as they have issues.

After consideration I decided new is the way to go whether its a new jap machine or chinese one, the later chinese quads are better quality now than what they were even 5 years ago and for around the $2500 mark you can get something like a farm type quad with carry racks and things that providing you ride it with care and keep up the maintenance on it you should get a good run out of it, also get your self a tyre plugging kit and a small 12v compressor that you can carry on it to fix tyres on the go.

If I do get a quad, I'm leaning towards a good secondhand Japanese model. I'm prepared to look at a new Chinese one but I haven't had the time to go to Perth to look at them 'in the flesh'.

My mate who has the lease next to mine has a 250cc Honda farm quad and we used it alot on our last trip, especially as we camped at the bottom of his lease and it was too far for me to walk to mine...so I used my Navara to get around, but a quad would have been very handy.